Taking Time Out – Rik Waddon

Well after a lot of thought, and more so after picking up the national Paracycling TT title and stripes at the weekend I have decided to take some time out from competitive racing, the year hasn’t gone quite as planned but I managed to salvage things by riding out one of my best performances numbers wise on the weekend.

The decision to take some time out hasn’t been the easiest chose, The last 12 months or so have been somewhat a testing time with the break down of a marriage and everything else that comes with it, which took its toll on not just my training, but also my racing and showed at the Paracycling world cup in May where my performance wasn’t where I needed it to be to meet the world champs selection criteria. On my return from Belgium I set myself the target of winning the national TT which i successfully did so it seems quite fitting to now have a bit of time out to put my focus to other things.

My passion runs so deep for this sport and it will always be in my heart but the truth is I want to focus on life for a bit. 17 years internationally i have been competing and not once have i been interested in doing anything else, my career has taken me all over the world to countless high level competitions and it has been a honour to pull on a Great Britain jersey in my life, I have met some amazing people on the way not to mention the amazing staff i have had the privilege to work with inside of British cycling with Chris Furber being just one of many who absolutely understood me and knew what made me tick.

I would like to thank all those who have assisted me in my career past and present I couldn’t have done it without you guys.

I still have one unfinished target with in the world of cycling which after a little time away I will pursue because i don’t do regrets and as i say it’s just time out and not retirement, I’ll be back!